It's desert storm as Army girl faces race challenge

Major Helen Carter, originally from Yorkshire and based at Catterick, is combining her duties in the blistering heat of the front line of Afghanistan with training for a race in sub-zero climes.

She has set herself a challenge to complete a series of Last Desert races. Having already done the driest, the hottest and the windiest, next month will see her take on the coldest.

The Antarctic race will also have added poignancy for her as she fulfils a dream to follow in the footsteps of her late father who served in the region with the Royal Navy in the 1950s.

If she successfully completes the Last Desert she will be the first military person of either sex worldwide to complete the four desert series of events and one of less than 100 people to have achieved this feat, the Army says.

Maj Carter is second in command of 3 Medical Regiment, based at Catterick. Although she comes from Yorkshire this is the first time in her Army career she has been stationed there.

Having been in Afghanistan since late March, she is about to hand over as second in command of the UK Close Support Medical Regiment, which provides the medics who go out on patrol and work at the forward operating bases.

The Last Desert is a series of tough foot races covering the Driest Desert (Atacama), Hottest Desert (Sahara), Windiest Desert (Gobi) and the Coldest Desert (Antarctica).

Her personal highlight so far was last year in the Gobi Desert when she won her age group, coming in as fifth female in the race and the first British woman to place in the individual event.

"It was such an amazing sense of achievement," she said. "Training has been a challenge out here – I am very much constrained by time."

With all her other responsibilities, Maj Carter can only go running early in the morning and then get away in the afternoon for an hour on the exercise bike.

"Every Friday we have (load carrying] marches. The heat has been a challenge out here especially during the height of summer where temperatures got to 45 degrees," she said.

"However, I have managed to keep myself fit doing at least eight sessions of physical exercise a week and I need to continue that over the next few weeks."

The Last Desert is by invitation only and competitors must have completed at least two desert races. The events are all 250km (155 miles) long, across some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world.

Over the years Maj Carter has faced gruelling salt flats, extreme temperatures, towering sand dunes, altitude sickness and icy river crossings.

"I wanted to prove that as an average female I could take up these challenges and prove to the world and myself that I can complete them in one piece.

"The Antarctic race will be especially poignant for me as I have always wanted to follow in my late father's footsteps. My dad was in the Royal Navy in the 1950s and he spent a significant amount of time in the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

"I still have his photo album of his travels and it has always been an ambition of mine to go down to Antarctica."

She said adrenaline rushes were in my blood, adding: "I have tried parachuting, scuba diving, bobsleighing, luge, skeleton bobsleigh and now ultra-marathons.

"I can't settle for normality. I always have to be challenged and I am very competitive which does spur me on in these races, as a lot of it is psychological."

When she raced in the Sahara she raised money for Marie Curie and now she is helping a new charity, Hounds for Heroes, which provides specially trained assistance dogs to injured men and service women and non-armed forces 999 services.

The website can be found at www.houndsforheroes.com.

FROM SANDHURST TO CHALLENGE OF DUNES AND ICE

Maj Helen Carter has been in the Army since September 1994 when she attended Sandhurst training college.

She spent 14 years in the RLC (Royal Logistics Corps) before transferring last year into the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps).

Maj Carter has completed tours of Bosnia (twice), Falkland Islands, Iraq and now Afghanistan and has also taken a military expedition trekking in the Grand Canyon.

She is raising money to help our injured servicemen and woman through Hounds for Heroes – raising money to provide assistance dogs for injured service personnel and emergency service personnel.

She is also fund-raising for the Black Rat Fund which provides assistance to injured service personnel in 4 Mechanised Brigade, which her unit supported in Afghanistan.

"Having worked in the medical group in Afghanistan it is only right and proper that I raise money for our heroes," she added.